No national trade union bodies, to my knowledge, adopted the ICFTU report. In Britain, the Trades Union Congress and the Labour Party expressly dissociated themselves from it on the basis of freedom of conscience for their members.15 Monitors of East European broadcasts and press remarked, however, on the use made in them of the draft report even before its publication, and the world media, unable swiftly to check on the report's sources, gave it wide publicity when it appeared. Later some editors, discovering its defects, began to wonder why the ICFTU had acted so precipitately. Der Bund of Berne hazarded the possibility that the report might be 'a cuckoo's egg laid by Moscow in its opponents' nest to bring suspicion both on them and on Moral Re-Armament, to create confusion'.16 Dr William Bohn, editor of the New York Social Democrat weekly, The New Leader, was more cautious as to the report's origin, but clear about its falsity: 'These charges, apparently launched with the backing of so respected an organisation (as the ICFTU), created a great impression in many parts of the world. But as time wore on and new facts came to light, their impact has tended to fade. . . It seems to me that, on the whole, the men and women of MRA have come out of the conflict with colours flying ... It is disturbing to note that the charges made against MRA by the Secretariat of the anti-Communist ICFTU have been picked up by Moscow.'17

Buchman was convinced that the ICFTU report was 'only the opening round of a world offensive', but he did not commit himself as to its source. He seems to have been mainly interested to see how opposition would affect people. 'Persecution is the fire which forges prophets - and quitters,' he used to say. He was particularly delighted by John Riffe's forthright action when the matter was raised at the 1953 CIO Convention, where, coincidentally, Riffe's position as Executive Vice-President was up for ratification.

Challenged by prominent members on his relation to Moral Re- Armament, Riffe said, 'Some of you have met people in Moral Re- Armament; some of you haven't. Well, you're looking at one now...Nobody can object to John Riffe quitting whisky and poker and a lot of other things he shouldn't have been doing. Now if contact with MRA makes a union man like me honest and decent and with an unselfish love for his fellow men, is that interfering with labour? If it gives me a happy home life again, and makes me do my job with greater responsibility, is that hurting labour?

'Millions of our members believe in these principles. There isn't a man in this room that wouldn't say they are right. But do we all live them?. . . I'm in your hands. No matter what you decide, I won't harbour any bitterness.'

434